William Franklin Graham Jr. was an American evangelist, a prominent evangelical Christian figure, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well-known internationally in the late 1940s. One of his biographers has placed him "among the most influential Christian leaders" of the 20th century; as a preacher, he held large indoor and outdoor rallies with sermons that were broadcast on radio and television. In his six decades on television, Graham hosted annual "Crusades", evangelistic campaigns that ran from 1947 until his retirement in 2005, he hosted the radio show Hour of Decision from 1950 to 1954. He repudiated racial segregation and insisted on racial integration for his revivals and crusades, starting in 1953. In addition to his religious aims, he helped shape the worldview of a huge number of people who came from different backgrounds, leading them to find a relationship between the Bible and contemporary secular viewpoints. According to his website, Graham preached to live audiences of 210 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including BMS World Mission and Global Mission.
Graham was a spiritual adviser to U. S. presidents, he provided spiritual counsel for every president from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama, he was close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, he was lifelong friends with another televangelist, the founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, Robert Schuller, whom Graham talked into starting his own television ministry. Graham operated a variety of media and publishing outlets. According to his staff, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to "accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior". Graham's evangelism was appreciated by mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic denominations because he encouraged new converts to become members of these churches; as of 2008, Graham's estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion. One special televised broadcast in 1996 alone may have reached a television audience of as many as 2.5 billion people worldwide.
Because of his crusades, Graham preached the gospel to more people in person than anyone in the history of Christianity. Graham was on Gallup's list of most admired women a record 61 times. Grant Wacker writes that by the mid-1960s, he had become the "Great Legitimator": "By his presence conferred status on presidents, acceptability on wars, shame on racial prejudice, desirability on decency, dishonor on indecency, prestige on civic events". William Franklin Graham Jr. was born on November 7, 1918, in the downstairs bedroom of a farmhouse near Charlotte, North Carolina. He was of Scots-Irish descent and was the eldest of four children born to Morrow and William Franklin Graham Sr. a dairy farmer. Graham was raised on a family dairy farm with his two younger sisters, Catherine Morrow and Jean and a younger brother, Melvin Thomas; when he was eight years old in 1927, the family moved about 75 yards from their white frame house to a newly built red brick home. He was raised by his parents in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.
Graham attended the Sharon Grammar School. He started to read books from an early age and loved to read novels for boys Tarzan. Like Tarzan, he would hang on the trees and gave the popular Tarzan yell, scaring both horses and drivers. According to his father, that yelling had led him to become a minister. Graham was 14 when Prohibition ended in December 1933, his father forced him and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they became sick; this created such an aversion that Graham and his sister avoided alcohol and drugs for the rest of their lives. Graham had been turned down for membership in a local youth group for being "too worldly" when Albert McMakin, who worked on the Graham farm, persuaded him to go and see the evangelist Mordecai Ham. According to his autobiography, Graham was 16 in 1934 when he was converted during a series of revival meetings that Ham led in Charlotte. After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College. After one semester, he found that rules were too legalistic.
At this time he was inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church. He was expelled, but Bob Jones Sr. warned him not to throw his life away: "At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks... You have a voice. God can use that voice of yours, he can use it mightily."In 1937 Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute in Temple Terrace, Florida. He preached his first sermon that year at Bostwick Baptist Church near Palatka, while still a student. In his autobiography, Graham wrote of receiving his "calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club", adjacent to the institute's campus. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park was established on the Hillsborough River, directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham paddled a canoe to a small island in the river, where he would practice preaching to the birds and cypress stumps. In 1939, Graham was ordained by a group of Southern Baptist clergy at Peniel Baptist Church in Palatka, Florida.
In 1943, Graham graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, with a degree in anthropology. During his time at Wheaton, Graham decided to accept the Bible as the infallible word of God. Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood in Cali
John David Bannister was an English cricket commentator and former first-class cricketer who played for Warwickshire County Cricket Club. He was, for many years, a BBC television cricket commentator and the Talksport radio cricket correspondent. Bannister was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and went to King Edward VI Five Ways school in Birmingham, he played professionally on the county scene for Warwickshire as a fast-medium bowler, taking 1198 first-class wickets in a career that lasted from 1950 to 1969. Against the Combined Services cricket team for Warwickshire at the Mitchells and Butlers ground in Birmingham, Bannister took all 10 Services wickets in an innings for 41 runs; these remain the best bowling figures in an innings for Warwickshire. Together with Fred Rumsey he was instrumental in setting up the Professional Cricketers' Association in 1967 which he served in various capacities for 20 years, notably in helping setup up the Professional Cricketer's Pension Scheme. Bannister worked as a bookmaker in Wolverhampton, taken over by his daughter as his media career took off.
He was a familiar voice on BBC TV's cricket coverage from 1984 through to 1994 firstly as a summariser moving on to commentating in 1988. David Gower joined the team in 1994 and replaced Bannister the following summer, but Bannister continued to commentate on Natwest Trophy and Sunday League games until 1999, had a full role at the BBC's coverage of the 1999 Cricket World Cup. In life, he provided commentary on and summaries of England international cricket matches on talkSPORT. During the 1995 South Africa vs England test match series in South Africa, he promised he would eat a newspaper if South Africa won, he did, when South Africa won. For many years he wrote the regarded cricket column in the Birmingham Post. Jack Bannister at ESPNcricinfo Jack Bannister on IMDb
Houstonia acerosa, the New Mexico bluet or needleleaf bluet, is a plant species native to Chihuahua, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Texas and New Mexico. Houstonia acerosa is an herb up to 20 cm tall, with narrow needle-like leaves and white or purplish flowers. Three varieties of the species are accepted: Houstonia acerosa var. acerosa - Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Texas Houstonia acerosa var. polypremoides Terrell - Chihuahua, New Mexico, trans-Pecos Texas Houstonia acerosa var. tamaulipana Terrell - Tamaulipas Photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, Wright 237, type specimen of Houstonia acerosa Gardening Europe Houstonia acerosa Chihuahuan Desert Plants, University of Texas at El Paso, Hedyotis acerosa